Multiscale approach to the identification of molecular biomakers in acute heart failure induced by shock

The management of cardiovascular stability in shock patients is of paramount importance in critical care. New,
cutting edge knowledge is necessary to overcome the shortcomings of available therapies, in order to cope with
the challenges that anesthesiologists, intensive care specialists and emergency physicians face when dealing
with shock patients.

Current therapies are targeted to reduce symptoms of shock and multiple organ failure, but they are unable
to target the root cause or to act at the “beginning of the cascade”, because of the lack of a model explaining
the molecular basis of shock induced tissue injury and ensuing multiple organ failure. Hence, the effectiveness
of anti-hypotensive interventions such as fluid resuscitation is limited. Fluid may restore blood pressure within
minutes, but complications such as pulmonary edema may arise on a longer time scale in patients who are
unresponsive to fluid infusion, and cause more severe stress to the patient’s hemodynamic stability, respiratory
efficiency, and immune system.

This proposal seeks to shed light on the molecular trigger of acute heart failure in association to shock, in the
presence of uncontrolled proteolytic activity, in order to identify inflammatory mediators and markers which are
activated in shock, through a systematic analysis of expression levels of genes and their protein products, and
novel targets for the delivery of new therapies, necessary to overcome the limitations of current ones.

Grant Agreement number 602706

ShockOmics is co-funded by the FP7 Health Programme (HEALTH.2013.2.4.2-1 “Discovery research to reveal novel targets for cardiovascular disease treatment” FP7-HEALTH-2013-INNOVATION-1).

Latest News:

Project meeting: Politecnico of Milan

21st of April, 2016

The project partners and the members of the External International Advisory Board met in Milano to discuss project preliminar results and to finetune ...